Jon Tester - My Kind of Democrat

At Freedom Democrats, Logan Ferree links to this account, by Gwen Florio of the Great Falls Tribune, of a recent U.S. senatorial debate in Montana. Here are a couple of quotes from state Senate President Jon Tester, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Senator Conrad Burns:

"I don't want to weaken the Patriot Act, I want to repeal it. What it does, it takes away your freedom ... and when you take away our freedoms, the terrorists have won," Tester said.

He came back to the subject near the end of the debate, when Burns tried to link him to New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is, Burns said, pro-gun-control.

"With things like the Patriot Act," Tester said, "We'd damn well better keep our guns."

(entire article here)

Here's a statement from President Tester's website:

Jon Tester believes in freedom first. Under the PATRIOT Act, the FBI could obtain records on every video you ever rented and every book you ever checked out. They can obtain your bank statements and medical records; they can even keep tabs on our guns. What's worse is they can request this information for any reason at all, without your knowledge.

Tester believes we should be fighting terrorists, not invading the lives of innocent Americans. In Washington, Tester will fight for more human intelligence, a greater investment in our Special Forces, and closing backdoors to terrorism like the one left open by the Burns-Abramoff immigration policy in the Marianas Islands.

President Tester sounds like my kind of Democrat. I think he'll get some of the money I had intended to send to Sherrod Brown.